Test-driven deployment meets Tamagotchi in TDGotchi

We thought we were shot of you Tamagotchi – but this Eclipse plugin for test driven deployment is kind of cool

Ah Tamagotchi – the 90s toy from hell that you thought had
been consigned to the archives of childhood crazes. You were either
addicted, mollycoddling your prized virtual pet every hour of the
day, or loathed it, buying one just to see how much you could
neglect it. It brought mostly the worst out of a
generation.

We’d assumed that Tamagotchis were dead and buried in every
single form. Not so, with this reboot of sorts fromTDGotchi– the test-driven deployment spin on the cute
companion.

Rather than feeding and giving your creature tender loving
care, TDGotchi relies upon tests and refactoring when it is hungry.
If your test goes from red to green, TDGotchi is happy, but if you
fail twice, TDGotchi gets upset. However, refactor, rename then
inline, TDGotchi is pleased once again.

The more you score, the
quicker your new pet evolves from beginner to pro. Be careful
though, the more failures you occur, the more likely it is your
TDGotchi becomes a zombie.

Created by Sebastian Hermida,
TDGotchi, is an Eclipse plugin that requires Eclipse Helios (3.6)
or higher to run. You can find the project onGithub.
Although it’s been around for more than a year, only in the last
few days have developers started talking about it in droves – sort
of like the Tamagotchi back in the mid-90s.

Whilst it’s hardly going to
radicalise TDD practices, it’s a neat little concept that shouldn’t
be taken too seriously. We just like it for putting a new spin on
things, even if it is a toy that should remain in the past.
Speaking of which, what do Bandai, creator of the original
Tamagotchi have to say about the possibly infringing name for
it?